Speedy. A tiny, tinny taxicab is speeding up the island of Manhattan, giving pedestrians the jumps, passing street cars on the wrong side on Broadway, dodging busses on Fifth Avenue like a squirrel full of applejack. In the back seat is George Herman ("Babe") Ruth who, judging by the expression on his face, is being taken for a remarkable ride. In the driver's seat is Harold Lloyd, grinning stupidly at his fat and famed passenger instead of watching the traffic. However, they do get to the ball game on time and Mr. Ruth knocks out a four-bagger. The ride, as well as most of Speedy, was actually filmed in Manhattan's streets in high afternoon. Mr. Lloyd is a city cowboy, who likes baseball, gets fired from many jobs, takes his girl to Coney Island on Sunday. Her grandfather owns and operates the last horse car in an obscure section of the city. A rapid transit potentate hires a gang of thugs to steal the horse car. But Mr. Lloyd recovers it and drives it home like an elephant full of applejack. This film is roaringly funny—though there is no doubt that if Harold Lloyd and Charles Chaplin were put on a platform without any mechanical devices, Mr. Chaplin would get 90% of the laughs.
Stand and Deliver. Greta Garbo is pretty. Gloria Swanson is pretty and sometimes funny. Lupe Velez is pretty and always funny. According to one school of thought, that is what every cinemactress should be. Little Lupe did her first major funny-business as the woodland roughneck who tweaked the cheeks of Douglas Fairbanks in The Gaucho. In this new Stand and Deliver she does just about the same thing to Rod La Rocque, though her friskiness is less vigorous and her panting is indeed tremendous when the villain gets after her. Mr. La Rocque plays a misogynist, who goes bandit-hunting in Greece to escape boredom in his London club. He saves the life of little Lupe and, after that, he just can't get rid of her. When his commanding officer in the Greek army molests her, he hits the officer in the jaw and, plotfully, kills him. So Mr. La Rocque runs away to the mountains with little Lupe hanging picturesquely on his neck. They are captured by the laughing bandit king, Ghika (Warner Oland), who has a nest on top of a mountain, reached by a mule-operated basket elevator. Ghika, with his eye on little Lupe, takes Mr. La Rocque into his gang. But, after much diverting muleplay, Mr. La Rocque brings Ghika into the arms of the law, and little Lupe brings Mr. La Rocque into her own arms.